Tory Taglio / Idaho Stock Images
Skiing the West
42 Alaska beyond Magazine November 2015
Ski Adventures
Making the most
of the region’s
wealth of winter
activities
By Kim Brown Seely
I
grew up in Southern California,
where our school’s winter break was
a week long, and we’d almost always
spend it skiing the West. My parents would
drive our VW camper van to Mammoth,
where we’d ski the spine of the Eastern
Sierra; at the two-week Christmas break,
sometimes we’d trek all the way north to
Sun Valley. We accumulated less than 10
ski days a season—but somehow those
days crystallized into fantastically vivid
childhood memories.
One of the best: My sister and I, maybe
11 and 13, are standing at the lip of Mammoth’s Cornice Bowl, named for the massive snow cornice formed when high winds
blast its top. An icy gust flies up like a hand
and socks us straight in the face. Yikes!
We’ve just ridden the gondola to Mammoth’s 11,053-foot summit—the highest ski
pinnacle in California—and stepped out.
It’s our first time up. Snow squeaks
beneath our boots as we nervously step into
our K2s. We’re both scared stiff, but the
360-degree alpine view of snowy peaks
marching off into the distance is empowering. Gingerly, we drop into the spooky
rutted traverses that lead into the iconic run
and pick our way down. Our descent isn’t
pretty, but the recollection of that rite of
passage—just making it to the bottom of
Sun Valley was the West’s first destination
ski resort when it opened in 1936.
November 2015 Alaska Beyond Magazine 43
Peter Morning
Ski Adventures
Mammoth Mountain is known for its
sunny skies and long season.
GrantGunderson.com
that big bowl edged by so much granite and
sky—stands out in the running for most
exhilarating of my life. It also leads to a
lifelong love affair with winter. And that’s
why, as a new ski season approaches, these
early memories gain fresh strength in my
life. When the mountains and snow
beckon, the West is the best place to
answer the call.
Head out to any of our region’s legend-
ary ski mountains—such as Squaw Valley,
Alta/Snowbird, Crested Butte, Steamboat,
Sun Valley, Telluride, Grand Targhee—and
you'll still get those mammoth views from
the top, the exhilaration of descending, the
bracing touch of sharp, snowy air and the
rewarding warmth of exertion.
As a young adult, friends and I talked
about taking off on some kind of epic ski
trip: a powder pilgrimage to mountains big
and small. But back then we could never
quite make it happen. So when I recently
heard about the Mountain Collective, a new
multi-resort pass ($409 buys two days
skiing at each of 14 different ski areas, plus
50 percent off additional days at some), I
thought, cool. Maybe it’s time to make that
trek to all those famous big mountains
after all. You see, I eventually made my way
back to Sun Valley and now spend much of
the winter in Hailey, Idaho—a snowball’s
throw from the second famous mountain
where my first big ski memories were
imprinted and where you can still find clear
blue skies and wide open slopes; and during midweek especially, you have the views
from the top practically all to yourself.
Of course, skiing is different in many
ways from the days of my youth. Better skis
and boots and much spiffier lifts have been
accompanied by amenities such as ski-in/
ski-out lodging, terrain parks, pedestrian
villages, top-notch on-slope cuisine and
more. Those enhancements are all excellent, more so as I grow older. But still, for
so many of us fans of winter, each mountain is totally worth skiing for its own
unadorned mountainness: terrain, setting,
steeps, pitch, visibility, authenticity; and
most important of all, snow. (Groomed vs.
ungroomed; fast vs. corn; hard vs. soft; and
increasingly these days, how consistently
it’s made and maintained.)
Skiing is not a bargain sport, and we all
want our days to be off the charts: bluebird
skies, 3 inches of fresh powder overnight,
just enough sun and warmth to hold the
snow but let us forego the mega-down
jacket. But sometimes temperatures plummet, winds growl and your fleece neck
gaiter freezes into a ring of ice. Even when
it’s snowing so hard it feels like the bottom
is falling out of the sky, it’s tough to have a
bad day skiing. If you’re a winter lover it’s
exhilarating just being out there.
In an era when more and more of us
crave open space, we can still step into our
skis and find mountains upon mountains
of soul-stirring beauty. I can, in fact, still
Squaw Valley hosted the West’s first Winter
Olympics in 1960, which spurred the area’s
development as a major destination.
November 2015 Alaska Beyond Magazine 45
Ski Adventures
Crested Butte
By Ted Alan Stedman
Alex Fenlon / Crested Butte Mountain Resort
Nathan Bilow / Crested Butte Mountain Resort
Tucked deep in a high valley in
Western Colorado surrounded by the Elk
Mountains, Crested Butte comprises a tale
of two places. The independent-minded
town of 1,500 clings to a retro mountain
culture that has roots in mining and ranching from the 1880s, but the big-league ski
resort that opened its first lifts in 1962 is the
reason so many of those residents are here.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s 1,547 acres
of downhill territory offer reliable deep
powder snow, challenging steeps and
uncrowded intermediate cruisers; the skiing
matches the town in the sense that both
offer simple virtues perfect for those who
want a ski vacation to be just that—a getaway with great skiing.
The town is a throwback to a bygone era, and historic preservation is embraced with fervor. The compact downtown of eight
blocks is a low traffic, pedestrian-friendly oasis with plenty of nooks
and crannies to explore on foot. The main street, Elk Avenue, seems
like an Old West movie set with historic mining cabins, clapboard
Victorians and weathered wooden buildings covered with rusty
license plates.
But CB, as locals call it, is no backwoods outpost. There are
more than 50 restaurants dishing up everything from sushi to
cowboy-cut rib steaks; old-school saloons are cheek by jowl with
trendy bars and artisan distilleries; New Age craft shops and nightlife venues lie behind weathered facades. To get a twofold sample of
local flavor, pop into The Eldo, a brewery and restaurant where
locals and visitors mingle over craft brews beneath a sign that
proclaims the bar’s slogan, “A Sunny Place for Shady People.”
Locals are marvelously friendly—testament to what happens when
life is good, perhaps. Even the dogs are friendly, usually some
tail-wagging mixed breed fitted with a bandana.
Three miles uphill, there’s a similar easygoing dichotomy at the
Paradise Bowl is a place where
beginners swell with pride.
1,547-acre ski mountain. Sure, the mountain draws its share of
ultra-advanced thrill seekers, here largely thanks to terrain suitable
for adrenaline junkies: If you want a hard-core skiing experience
inbounds, you’ll find it on Crested Butte’s signature steep chutes
and expert-only bowls. This terrain is the reason for the many freeskiing and competition events that regularly visit the resort during
the ski season.
But in reality, 84 percent of the mountain’s 121 trails are rated
beginner and intermediate. That explains all the families and other
mortals who head to Paradise Bowl, popular for its wide open blue
runs that enable giant, crowd-free carved turns on trails with names
like Forest Queen and Ruby Chief. It’s a place where beginners swell
with pride.
Non-Alpine winter sports fans can easily find their outdoor
adventure at the Nordic Center, at the ice skating rink (in town) and
on the miles of cross-country and snowshoe trails offering wintry
solitude and majestic mountain scenery. If ski convenience trumps
the downtown scene, the mountain village holds slopeside lodging
with numerous modern condos, hotels such as the Elevation Hotel
& Spa, and remarkably diverse dining and après-ski hangouts right
at the base.
True to its indie streak, pricing for lodging and lift tickets is
similarly retro; both are about 10 percent less expensive than betterknown major resorts. And lift lines, if there are any, might be all of
two minutes—just enough to catch your breath at 9,375 feet before
carving through the powder stashes that fall annually in this quirky,
fun-loving town that feels like a time capsule of a vanishing era.
Alaska Airlines begins service between Los Angeles and Gunnison,
Colorado (Crested Butte’s gateway), December 16. For more information visit alaskaair.com/ski or call 800-ALASKAAIR. For town information, go to visitgcb.com; ski resort info is available at skicb.com.
November 2015 Alaska Beyond Magazine 47
Ski Adventures
GrantGunderson.com
I remember Park City when it
still felt like a funky silver-mining
town and as kids we thought it was
awesome prowling around after the
lifts closed and finding pieces of
rusty old mining equipment on the
hillsides. That was a gazillion years,
of course, before the build-out of the
Canyons Village subsumed much of
the old mining territory. Today Park
City has a terrific range of hotels to
choose from, hundreds of bars and
restaurants, and of course, all the
buzz and glamour that comes with the
annual Sundance Film Festival, taking place
this winter January 21–31.
Either way, whether you choose to ski
big and bigger or wild and steep, one of the
best things about Utah is that it’s so accessible. Since it’s only a 45-minute drive from
Salt Lake City airport to either Park City or
Alta/Snowbird, you can fly in and hit the
slopes the same afternoon.
hop on the gondola to the top of Mammoth, pause a moment at the top of Cornice Bowl, and relive that long-ago moment
that my sister and I first fell in love with
winter. Let’s all just hope for the monster El
Niño that is predicted this year to deliver
great snow. Then be ready to take a week
and follow it.
Alta /Snowbird,
Park City /The Canyons
Alta’s appeal is all about authenticity—no
gondolas, few high-speed chairs, no-nonsense skiers foregoing fashion statements
and show-off runs. I’ve skied at Alta/Snowbird when it was insanely cold (13 degrees
below at midday), and ridiculously warm
(snow turning to slush as a group of us
swept down Yellow Trail one spring), and
once during the 2002 Winter Olympics
when no one was even out in Little Cottonwood Canyon but my husband and me and
a few diehards. There we met Lou, a
75-year-old stalwart who’d raised five kids
while on ski patrol at Mad River Glen,
Vermont (famous, along with Alta and
Deer Valley, as the three areas in the country that bar snowboarders). Lou took the
two of us under her wing for some reason,
then talked us down some of the craziest
stuff we’d ever skied together. It was a blast.
Time marches on, but Alta stays true to
its roots. Stay at one of the timeless lodges
that still cater to hard-core skiers, like the
Peruvian or Alta Lodge, or in Snowbird, the
larger Cliff Lodge, and you’ll go back to a
simpler era ... Don’t look for plasma screen
TVs in rooms at Alta; supper is a set-time
family affair.
And the big secret at Alta: Despite its
hard-core character, it has a wide array of
excellent intermediate territory.
Nearby, at the other end of the spectrum, Vail Resorts bought Park City ski
resort last year for
$182.5 million and
has just linked it to
The Canyons,
creating the largest
ski complex in the
United States, with
7,300 acres of
terrain. A new
high-speed, twoway gondola will
whisk skiers in
eight-passenger
cabins between the
base of Park City’s
Silverlode Lift to
The Canyons’
Flatiron Lift. The
result leapfrogs the
pair past Big Sky
Steamboat's “champagne powder” is perfect for tree skiing.
(formerly the biggest ski resort in the country) and takes Ski
Utah one step closer to its “One Wasatch”
Steamboat is known for whisper-light
goal—adding a few more connecting lifts
powder, and when storms align, tree skiand turning seven resorts into the largest
ing through perfectly spaced pines and
contiguous ski experience in North Ameraspens that make it viable for all of us.
ica, as in the Alps.
The resort’s easy access from nearby
Larry Pierce
The snow is reliably light and deep at
Utah’s Alta/Snowbird complex.
Steamboat
November 2015 Alaska Beyond Magazine 49
Ski Adventures
Hayden Airport makes me wistful for the
last time I skied those trees. A group of
us rented a condo on the mountain and
in the mornings we would all have breakfast in our long johns, then jump into
our one-piece ski suits (it was the ’80s,
OK?) and walk a few feet to the lifts.
The best day, though, was a blizzard
day when we all stayed in, playing
Monopoly and grumping, until someone
said: “The heck with this!” Out we went.
Floating through the Twilight Glades, air
sharp with the scent of pine, boughs
heavy with snow, then making those
The snow was so
light that even those
of us who hadn’t
skied much powder
could enjoy it that
morning.
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accentuated slo-mo turns through the
trees, champagne powder pillowed in
the glades, is something I’ll never forget.
The snow was so light that even those of
us who hadn’t skied much powder could
enjoy it that morning. That’s all it takes: a
single day like that, a ski day you might
have so easily missed, and you’re hooked
all over again.
Steamboat is also, like Crested Butte
100 miles south, a real historic town
whose main drag, below the mountain,
offers authentic delights such as the
famous F.M. Light & Sons, a 110-year-old
family-owned Western outfitter.
“Designer wear” here consists of Carhartt, Stetson, Levi’s, Pendleton and Tony
Lama goods. Yes, you can take some of
that right uphill to the mountain and see
how denim handles ultra-light powder.
Pretty well, I’d say.
Focused
Ski Adventures
Big Sky
Big Sky makes an epic winter break ski
trip. Once my teenage son and I flew
from Seattle to Bozeman, rented a car,
and wound upward through the canyons
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54 Alaska beyond Magazine November 2015
Lone Mountain dominates the skyline at
Montana’s Big Sky Resort.
of the Gallatin Basin. Moonlight Basin
and Lone Mountain had just combined
operations, creating what was until this
year the “biggest skiing in America,”
with 5,800 acres and 4,350 vertical feet.
You can rent a big-timbered small cabin
a short walk from the lifts and cruise
blue runs all day, or challenge your legs
with laps from the top. The year we
were there, Big Sky had just installed its
Lone Peak Tram, built to whisk you to
Lone Mountain’s 11,166-foot summit
and extreme treeless terrain. The inside
of the tram’s cabins were painted pink to
have a calming effect on the passengers,
but I still remember the hillside dropping away precipitously, the sound of
the wind whistling past as we rose
higher and higher, and a lot of anticipatory chatter. It was the spookiest thing
Ski Adventures
my younger son and I had ever done
together, but awesome too—stepping
out at the top with its 360-degree views,
then descending the ungroomed dome
of Liberty Bowl and, in my case, finding
out I could keep up with a teenager.
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56 Alaska beyond Magazine November 2015
Sun Valley has long been a refuge, a
secluded gem of a place where refined
and rustic have gone hand in hand. This
year’s big news is that the iconic Sun
Valley Lodge has just revealed a major
new look with 94 gorgeous updated
rooms and suites, and the addition of
Fly first, then ski
Alaska Airlines provides daily service
between numerous West Coast cities
and many of the West’s winter-sports
destinations, from Alaska to New
Mexico. Among the gateways are:
▸ Albuquerque: Sandia Peak, Santa
Fe, Taos, Red River, Ski Apache and
Angel Fire.
▸ Anchorage: Alyeska.
▸ Denver: Winter Park, Loveland
Basin, Arapahoe Basin, Copper
Mountain, Vail and Breckenridge.
▸ Portland: Timberline, Mt. Hood
Meadows, Skibowl.
▸ Redmond/Bend: Mt. Bachelor.
▸ Reno: Squaw Valley, Heavenly,
Sierra-at-Tahoe, Alpine Meadows,
Kirkwood, Mt. Rose and Northstar.
▸ Salt Lake City: Alta, Snowbird, Park
City/The Canyons, Deer Valley, Solitude and Sundance.
▸ Seattle: Crystal Mountain, Stevens
Pass, Snoqualmie.
▸ Vancouver: Whistler.
For tickets or for flight information,
call 800-ALASKAAIR, or go to
alaskaair.com/ski.
a 20,000-foot spa. And tiny Ketchum,
Idaho, is in the midst of an upscale hotel
boom. A five-star $53 million Auberge
Resorts Sun Valley lodge is under construction, along with Aspen Skiing Co.’s
99-room Limelight Hotel (modeled after
the company’s luxurious Little Nell).
In other words, plenty of excellent
Ski Adventures
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hotel rooms await you if we get lucky and
score another holiday powder day. It’s an
increasingly rare privilege. Even though
Sun Valley has one of the largest snowmaking systems in the country and
immaculate grooming, some years are
better than others. And in midwinter
there’s nothing like waking to a foot of
fresh-fallen snow.
That’s what happened last Christmas.
Our boys (now in their 20s), my husband
and I woke early, took one look outside
and yelled, “Christmas can wait!” We
grabbed our skis and headed for the hill,
where a small group of skiers was already
in line for the gondola. By the time we
made it to the top the snow was glittering
white and the sun was shining: a Christmas Miracle.
The fastest way into Baldy’s bowls is
to ski straight from the top onto Lookout
Chair, which everyone calls the “Chair to
Nowhere” because it winds along the
ridgeline rather than heading up the
mountain. That day, though, it became
the Chair to Everywhere.
If skiing consists of a lifetime of
standout moments, that one—epic sunny
bowl skiing Christmas Day with my
family—is like that long-ago first run
down Mammoth’s Cornice Bowl, something I’ll never forget. In our case, riding
a chair that feels like it’s strung from the
sky while listening to childlike whoops of
delight as grown men and women plop
into untracked powder below. It’s glorious: mountains marching off into the
distance, and the sky the deepest blue
imaginable.
When we reach the top we all ski off
together and find our own lines. I watch
my boys make their turns, snow flying,
and at the bottom we agree it’s the best
Christmas ever, the stuff winter dreams
are made of. Then we ride straight back
up, marveling at the twin gifts of sun and
snow, and do it all over again.
Kim Brown Seely divides her time between
Seattle and Idaho.
58 Alaska beyond Magazine November 2015